


Walk you home

by Taeyn



Series: not quite shakespeare [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Best Friends, Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Emotions, F/M, Holding Hands, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Riverdale 1x07, Trust, Walks In The Woods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 20:18:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10343814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taeyn/pseuds/Taeyn
Summary: His lips were dry and the line of his mouth uneven, crumpled further when he tried to smile.“Oh Juggie,” she whispered, wrapped both arms around his neck. He stood stiff and straight, slowly leaned into her shoulder when he realised Betty wasn’t letting go.





	

First light. Betty liked the words as much as the feeling, the way dawn prickled over her skin. Curled up in the nook of her window, nothing outside looked quite the same, not with the dew, the crisp fog, the gauze of dark leaking back into the forest. It was an old Blue and Gold mantra- _if you want to see things differently, look through another lens._

Now, with Polly safe and Cheryl on her side, it was time to start looking.

_Really_ looking.

Tucking her knees to her chest, Betty stared out over the Coopers’ front garden. She let her eyes blur, facts and faces stirring in and out of focus. Another journalists coda surfaced from the haze.

...was there really such a thing as being too close?

Betty blinked, tightened her ponytail. In the corner of her eye, a figure darted past her mailbox, hands in pockets and jaw tucked down to his chest.

_Jeepers,_ she thought, brows tipping in surprise. _This new lens thing sure works quick._

That was, until she caught a glimpse of a familiar grey woollen beanie. She fumbled with the latches at her window, prising it ajar a moment too late.

“Jug- Juggie!” she hissed, as loud as she could manage without risking her parents waking. No luck. Quickly, she scrambled for her sneakers, threw a checkered coat over her cardigan. Darting a look left and right for any early-morning dogwalkers, she managed to get out the window and down the tree outside with barely more than a raised eyebrow from the postman. Betty offered a cheerful smile, waved, then dashed across the lawn and ducked around the hedges.

And straight into Jughead Jones.

“-Oomphh!”

“Auugh-!”

“Oww-?” Betty finished, spluttered a groan as they made an unceremonious landing on a pile of wet leaves.

“Hey, neighbour,” Jughead coughed, gave her a thumbs-up and flopped back onto the sidewalk. “Is it safe to get up yet? I assume the dive bomb was to save me from some hitherto incomprehensible fate?”

Betty laughed, winced as her ribs ached, then laughed again.

“The fate of wandering the streets alone, like some kind of lost wraith?” she admitted, teasing. “I saw you from my bedroom and I…”

She paused as Jughead climbed to his feet, offered both hands to pull her up. His palms were warm, sleeves rough and grip firm and fingers clasped around hers.

“...thought you could use some company?” Betty finished, the words trailing quiet as she saw him up close. Jughead’s eyes, typically shadowed against his wan pallor, were now red-rimmed and watery, slightly swollen when he looked away. His lips were dry and the line of his mouth uneven, crumpled further when he tried to smile.

“Oh Juggie,” she whispered, wrapped both arms around his neck. He stood stiff and straight, slowly leaned into her shoulder when he realised Betty wasn’t letting go.

“Sorry,” he muttered, kept his face pressed against her jacket. Betty rubbed the middle of his back, felt his chest shudder as he tried to hold his breath.

“You don’t have to be sorry,” she said quietly, her ear squeezed against his cheek. “You were almost _arrested_ , Juggie. That’s a rough day for _anyone_.”

He sniffled, shot her a blurry smile. When Betty gently leant back, he jerked his chin toward Eversgreen Forest, wiped his eyes with the heel of one hand. _Walk with me?_

At first, Betty linked her arm in his. By the time they’d reached the edge of the wood, she moved her arm round his waist instead. Because that was what close friends did, right…?

Close friends who... had gotten a lot closer. And thought about that closeness a lot. And would rather shimmy out of several windows, several mornings, over several hundred weeks…

...than see Jughead get hurt again.

They walked in silence, pine needles snapping underfoot. There was a heaviness to the still that crept under Betty’s skin, a damp, stinging echo to the quiet.

“It’s not so much the getting arrested,” Jughead said eventually, took a deep breath and let it out. “Though yeah, that wasn’t a win for the whole non-suspicious, wholesome and approachable image I’m clearly aiming for...”

He gave a crooked smile, Betty fetched her arm tighter round his side.

“It’s Jellybean. I said I’d always be there for her. I promised-”

His voice went shaky and he stopped, laughed and made an exasperated gesture as his throat tangled all over again.

“You’re alright,” Betty said softly, and though he was crying, seeing him smile was making her smile too. Slowly, she brought her palms to his cheeks, brushed her thumbs below his eyes. He swallowed, looked surprised. He didn’t pull away.

“I promised her it wouldn’t happen again,” he finished, his arms hung limply by his suspenders. “That I wouldn’t… go away again.”

His gaze darkened to the trees behind them, Betty shivered despite her coat. Go away? Like… run away? When he didn’t meet her eyes, she had a feeling that wasn’t it.

“I spent some time in juvie, just before Junior High,” Jughead said quietly, and Betty saw in his expression something bright and torn, bracing for the fallout. The fire extinguished as he grimaced, stared unblinking over Sweetwater River.

She reached for his hand where it tucked beneath his jacket, laced their fingers and squeezed firm. Jughead glanced at her, unreadable.

“You’re not going to ask what I did?” he muttered.

“You can tell me, if it helps,” Betty said, and she meant it. “But I don’t need to ask, to know that it was a mistake. Whatever happened, they got it wrong.”

“But how do you _know_ that?” Jughead said tersely.

“Because I know you, Juggie,” Betty answered, and the words came out steady. “I happen to know you pretty darn well, actually. And whatever you did or didn’t do, whatever the Sheriff's book of papers says…”

He turned to face her, his jaw clenched and eyes searching.

“ _I_ know you better. And I want to get to know you even more.”

Betty paused, squinted as she realised she’d said the last part out loud.

“...even if you _do_ happen to think strolling through a crime scene is some kind of refreshing start to the day,” she added quickly, pulled an amused face, snorted and rolled her eyes toward the river, made an airy flailing motion with her hand. Jughead was still staring, hadn’t moved an inch.

“It did seem like… a morbidly appropriate way to commemorate my near-incarceration,” he said slowly, his mouth twitching up at the corner.

Betty hoped the warmth at her cheeks could pass as something closer to frostbite.

“Yeah. Well next time… um. They do a pretty good breakfast sundae at Pop’s, you know. We could always just sit in a booth and… glare moodily out the window, or something.”

“You’d sit in a booth and glare moodily out the window with me?” Jughead said, raised a wry eyebrow. His taciturn smirk dissolved to a laugh as she pinched him.

“Oh don’t worry, I’ve got a quite the selection of disparaging glares up my sleeve,” Betty confirmed. “And then maybe, in between all the glaring…”

Her fingers still woven through his, she took a step backwards, tugged gently at his knuckles.

“...you could tell me about Jellybean?”

Slowly, he smiled.

“Yeah,” he said huskily, and for all his shadows, he no longer looked haunted. “I’d… like that.”

When Jughead still didn’t move, Betty quirked to a grin. He flinched his arms, hesitated, barely a suggestion, but…

Betty leaned in and hugged him back.

“Thank you,” he whispered. She didn’t let go.

-

**Author's Note:**

> tysm for reading! c: comments and kudos are always adored and appreciated *^^* <3


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